


She Had Bedded Lions

by Canarii



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: ASOIAF as TWD modern AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Female-Centric, Gen, POV Female Character, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-12-14 21:37:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canarii/pseuds/Canarii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years after the beginning of the end of the world, things hadn't changed much within the walled confines of Kings Landing University. Until a familiar face reappears from the wild.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Had Bedded Lions

Sansa spends the night in the wolf’s den.

That’s what some of the other students had started calling the locker room where Arya was locked up, tongue in cheek. It wasn’t strictly accurate, really. Nymeria wasn’t a wolf, despite the likelihood of one having contributed to her gene pool, and Arya- well. Maybe the name wasn’t so invalid.

Her little sister had been given the dog back after a week of Nymeria tearing up her restraints and attacking anyone who came near. Arya was the only who could make the elbow height beast behave, and it had been Sansa’s quiet influence that had finally convinced Joffrey to reunite the two in captivity.

Not quiet enough. 

So it was with a split lip and bruises on her wrists that Sansa found herself sitting on the cold linoleum floor, watching a bundle of bones in the shape of a girl sleep.

The sister she remembered had been tiny, thirteen years old, all knobby limbs and messy hair. The little wild thing on the floor was more woman than Sansa had ever imagined. Lean and scarred, she slept fitfully, only settling when Nymeria licked her hair or nuzzled her shoulder. 

The husky/shepherd/wooly mammoth hybrid dog was big enough to curl almost entirely around Arya, and hadn’t stopped watching Sansa with cool golden eyes since she’d walked in.

Not a growl, not a hackle raised, but the effect was clear. 

Sansa didn’t sleep. She watched Arya breathe, and dared to remember the last time she’d seen her, seen all of them. It had been a grainy Skype chat, three days before the end of the world.  
C   
She remembered their father looking tired, the way he and their mother avoided eye contact. Remembered the squeak of Bran’s wheelchair as he ran it into the desk, of Rickon chattering on about this or chat. Remembered Jon’s newfound facial hair and his redheaded Canadian girlfriend. And a puppy, held up to the camera to say hello, a wriggling mass of tan and grey fur waiting for her when she finished up at school.

She supposed Lady was either dead or wandering the world somewhere, just as lean and wild as Arya, living off scraps and the dead. She wondered if her pup would have grown as big as her sister.

Somewhere in those thoughts, Sansa finds herself standing; stepping closer to the pair huddled in the corner. The liquid brass eyes follow her warily, nothing but that and a flick of ears to signify acknowledgement. She gets within two feet before the dog tenses warily. Sansa sat, slowly, extending her hand out, inch by inch.  
The dog showed a flash of fang, but Sansa swallowed the fear. She’d bedded lions. 

They met halfway.

Lip still ever so slightly curled, Nymeria leaned in to sniff at Sansa’s fingers, and finally gave one an experimental lick. Seemingly satisfied, the beast craned forward, shoving her muzzle under the curve of Sansa’s palm.

Breath hitched, Sansa swallowed, sucked in by the deep golden eyes that seemed to understand too much.

“You’ll take care of her, won’t you?” She whispered, with a habitual glance over her shoulder, to the door and the rest of campus. “When I can’t, anymore?”

The dog gave a puffing snort through her nose that sounded oddly like an agreement, before laying her head on Sansa’s knee. Tears pricking her eyes, the girl tangled her fingers in the animal’s thick grey ruff.

“Thank you.”


End file.
